It is a beautifully UNDERSTATED film... passages of silence filled with expression and meaning... dialogue that when spoken is sparse and realistic... never melodramatic... a gentle and tender tale with an ______ ending... and bravo Joyous Of All Joans for noting Mr. Heffes score... the piano solos being just "right". Emily Mortimer & Gerard Butler... both of whom are easy on the eyes admittedly... are very talented actors besides. The film deserves critical praise... there is something about movies about "letters" that always seem to appeal...

Yes, I agree with you. It is an understated movie. Emotions are often not articulated, and yet we sense and feel them. I did like the music a lot. Unfortunately, it was not viewed by many. Not enough (or any) bullets, blood, or car chases. Sigh! A loss of an unseeing audience.

Yes, I agree with you. It is an understated movie. Emotions are often not articulated, and yet we sense and feel them. I did like the music a lot. Unfortunately, it was not viewed by many. Not enough (or any) bullets, blood, or car chases. Sigh! A loss of an unseeing audience.

Hi Joan. On your reccomendation, I've moved this film title 'UP' to the #1 spot on my request que for Netflix. But though my request to see this film has been with Netflix for some weeks, it continues to read 'VERY LONG WAIT' which can change sometimes to almost instant accessability but usually it never does. I waited 4 months (!) for 'Tokyo Story' to get to me and longer still for 'The Battle of Algiers'. But the reviews for this little film seem to whisper 'something SPECIAL is in store for you'... so I'll wait. Thanks Joan!

Yes, I agree with you. It is an understated movie. Emotions are often not articulated, and yet we sense and feel them. I did like the music a lot. Unfortunately, it was not viewed by many. Not enough (or any) bullets, blood, or car chases. Sigh! A loss of an unseeing audience.

Alas, I share your disappointment in the lack of droids, spaceships and dinosaurs in a film that is witty, character driven and, as you so excellently pointed out, emotions are not always articulated yet full expressed... the face of The Stranger is filled with heartbreak when he discovers Frankie's "truth" delivered so simply by the mother. That silence and "the kiss" are excellent examples of cinema at its finest story telling best... you'll note the director passed on computers & cell phones throughout and kept the colors subdued... no whites or bright blues... keeping the film gentle and effects free.

Hi Joan. On your reccomendation, I've moved this film title 'UP' to the #1 spot on my request que for Netflix. But though my request to see this film has been with Netflix for some weeks, it continues to read 'VERY LONG WAIT' which can change sometimes to almost instant accessability but usually it never does. I waited 4 months (!) for 'Tokyo Story' to get to me and longer still for 'The Battle of Algiers'. But the reviews for this little film seem to whisper 'something SPECIAL is in store for you'... so I'll wait. Thanks Joan!

There aren't rental STORES in NY?

This is the best film I have seen all year... no fantasy... though a premise that seems fantastic and predictable, which it ultimately is not. It never ends up where you suspect it will. And the characters never TALK their way through it, they just LIVE a tale of surviving deep wounds and practicing unconditional love. Very special.

Alas, I share your disappointment in the lack of droids, spaceships and dinosaurs in a film that is witty, character driven and, as you so excellently pointed out, emotions are not always articulated yet full expressed... the face of The Stranger is filled with heartbreak when he discovers Frankie's "truth" delivered so simply by the mother. That silence and "the kiss" are excellent examples of cinema at its finest story telling best... you'll note the director passed on computers & cell phones throughout and kept the colors subdued... no whites or bright blues... keeping the film gentle and effects free.

My favorite movie this year that is now out on DVD is THE UPSIDE OF ANGER. Lots of layers, good acting, messages, and a decent score.

I also loved THE UPSIDE OF ANGER and have been surprised at how many people I've recommended it to that have hated it. I'm not saying it's a perfect film, but I found it really enjoyable with very good performances.

The other film that immeadiately comes to mind as being one of the best of the year is CRASH. If you can still find it in theatres, you should check it out. It is very well made and acted and will also make you think. (A rare commodity these days.)

I'll have to move DEAR FRANKIE up on my Netflix list, but not too high so that I don't delay David from getting it first. (I'm almost out of room on my list anyway.)

Bond1965, I think "some" people struggle with the mother's character in Upside of Anger. They forget about emotional scars and about the journey we take when full of rage. Also, I too love CRASH. I think it is the best I've seen so far this year.

Thanks for the recommendation, BBB (seriously). I was interested in this when I first heard about it during its theatrical release, but it seems to have slipped my mind since then. (And with Joan backing it up, how can one go wrong?)

It's now at the top of my Blockbuster Online queue, with only a "Short Wait."

(and five people in my life have just become lucky owners of "Dear Frankie"... when I like something, I make it known... being the tough audience that I am)

From Saint Ebert's review (edited a great deal because his full review ruins a number of special moments in the film, the twit):

There is a shot toward the end of "Dear Frankie" when a man and a woman stand on either side of a doorway and look at each other, just simply look at each other. During this time they say nothing, and yet everything they need to say is communicated: Their doubts, cautions, hopes. The woman is named Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) and the man, known in the movie only as "the Stranger," is played by Gerard Butler.

This sounds, I know, like the plot of a melodramatic tearjerker, but the filmmakers work close to the bone, finding emotional truth in hard, lonely lives.

A movie like this is all in the details. The director, Shona Auerbach, and her writer, Andrea Gibb, see Lizzie, Frankie and his grandmother not as archetypes in a formula, but as very particular, cautious, wounded people, living just a step above poverty, precariously shielding themselves from a violent past.

What eventually happens, while not entirely unpredictable, benefits from close observation, understated emotions, unspoken feelings, and the movie's tact; it doesn't require its characters to speak about their feelings simply so that we can hear them. That tact is embodied in the shot I started out by describing: Lizzie and the Stranger looking at each other.

Every once in a long while, a director and actors will discover, or rediscover, the dramatic power of silence and time. They are moving pictures, but that doesn't mean they always have to be moving. In the same way, the bold long shot near the end of "Dear Frankie" allows the film to move straight as an arrow toward its emotional truth, without a single word or plot manipulation to distract us. While they are looking at each other, we are looking at them, and for a breathless, true moment, we are all looking at exactly the same fact.